21103 – Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine – Review

The Lego Car Blog Review My Set Competition is drawing to a close, so there’s just enough time to fit in one more fan review! Today’s reviewer is a previous bloggee himself, and today he’s on the other side of the screen after joining us here at TLCB to pen the final reader review of the competition. Over to Nils O to pick up the story…

A Dream (Almost) Come True…

The LEGO Ideas set of the Back to the Future (BTTF) time machine could have been one of the best LEGO sets ever. For me the project on LEGO Ideas (then still called CUUSOO) is still one of the best on the platform. The pictures of the car / time machine are so cool that as a BTTF and LEGO fan you just want one thing: To own that model!

The set that hit the shelves was another thing entirely. If you want to be nice you could call the look weird, but let’s be honest; it’s ugly. I think most BTTF fans still want the set, but they also want to do something more; modify it to make it look better.

But first things first. 21103 comes in a high quality black box featuring a cool BTTF design. There’s a book with instructions for the time machine from all three parts of the movie franchise, including a hover function and 1950s’ wheels and ‘electronic components’, and the parts are included for all three versions of the car. There are also unique mini-figs of Marty and Doc which are instantly recognisable, and additionally you get a skateboard, but no – no Hover Board.

But what you do get is a handful of excellent printed parts (yes, printed parts, no stickers) (Hurrah! Ed.): License plates for 1985 (‘OUTATIME’) and 2015 (bar code), a time computer and, of course, a Flux Capacitor. The only part I’m not a 100% happy with is the Flux Capacitor. I just don’t like the 1x2x2 panel, for me a 1x2x2 printed brick or a 2×2 printed tile would have been a better choice.

After building the set (I built the version from Back to the Future Part II) the second thing you notice (after realising how ugly it really is) is the untypical fragility of the set. You can’t really touch it without something falling off. I had to modify the thing, especially the 4-wide roof which didn’t look right. Surprisingly I could build a 6-wide roof and matching A-pillars and doors just using parts from the set. So, why didn’t the LEGO designers do something similar? We will never know.

What remains is the desire to make the 21103 DeLorean set look as cool as it deserves to. For me it’s still one of the projects at the top of my to do list.

In conclusion, I think that with all the special parts plus the really cool box, 21103 is a set that’s still worth buying. And you can still get one, albeit only on after-market platforms. Despite all its flaws the set sold out at Lego.com in a very short time.

Thanks to Nils for joining us here at The Lego Car Blog to add the final competition set review to the Set Review Library. You can read all of the fan-submitted set reviews, as well as those written by our in-house anoraks, via the link above. As for the 21103 Back to the Future DeLorean time machine set… we’ll leave it on eBay.

4 thoughts on “21103 – Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine – Review”

It’s a poor set and a huge wasted opportunity. Should made the fan proposal better, not worse. I’ve got around the sight of that ridiculous stepped bonnet by displaying it in BTTF3 mode. For TLG to decide not to integrate the 6×8 slope is inexplicable.

I think you’re right. The design could have been a bit sleeker. As far as durability, a tiny bit of white glue goes a long way to keep it from falling apart (use a tiny bit unless you don’t want it to come apart again!). At least it’s easy to modify the hoverboard- just remove the wheels and axels from the piece! 🙂

[…] sold in the U.S. every year, you’re bound to find one you like. You may even be sitting on a Back to the Future set or a LEGO Batman set that was your source of inspiration for making the movie in the first […]